JANUARY 12, 2013

KING'S FOUL SHOOTING WOES RESULT IN 70-67 LOSS AT EASTERN

ST. DAVIDS -- Entering its Freedom Conference matchup at Eastern University, the King's College men's basketball team headed into the contest shooting just 57.0 percent from the foul line for the season. On Saturday, the Monarchs suffered through a brutal 47.6 (10-21) showing. The result? A disappointing 70-67 defeat at the hands of the host Eagles.

With the loss, King's fell to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in the Freedom Conference. Eastern, meanwhile, won just its third game of the season, improving to 3-12 and 1-3 in league play.

Eastern led for much of the first half but the Monarchs took a 18-17 lead on a three-pointer by Mike Foster with 8:20 left in the opening stanza. After Eastern converted a pair of foul shots, Kyle Hammonds buried a three-pointer to give the Monarchs a 21-19 lead at the 7:55 mark.

After Eastern used one-of-two foul shots to cut the lead to 21-20, the Monarchs Monarchs used consecutive baskets from Tom Heston, and four straight points by Matt Fiorino to cap a 9-0 run, giving King's a 30-20 lead with 4:26 to go. The Monarchs would eventually take a 36-27 lead into the halftime break.

In the second half Eastern slowly chipped away, outscoring King's 19-10 over the first eight minutes to tie the score at 46-46 with 8:01 left in the contest.

King's pushed the lead back up to 51-46 after an Ian Oakley bucket but Eastern countered with five straight points to deadlock the game at 51-51 with 8:35 to play. The Monarchs answered with a 6-1 surge of its own to push the lead to 57-52 on a Joe Caffrey jumper. But Eastern once again responded with its own 5-0 spurt to tie the game for the fifth time, this time at 57-57 with 4:33 on the clock.

After a King's miss, the Eagles recaptured the lead at 59-57 on a Dan Werth jumper, but Fiorino countered with a three-pointer to put the Monarchs ahead 60-59 with 2:54 to play. Eastern matched the shot with a three-pointer by Malcolm Garrison to give the Eagles a 62-60 advantage with 2:28 left in the contest.

Heston scored inside for King's to tie the game at 62-62 and was fouled on the play with 1:49 remaining, but the Monarch rookie was unable to convert the free throw. Eastern recaptured the lead when a garrison lay-up pushed the score to 64-62 with 1:18 left. After a King's miss, Anthony Parenti scored on a driving lay-up to give the Eagles a 66-62 advantage with just 0:23 on the clock.

Caffrey scored and was fouled on the play, making god at the foul line to bring King's within 66-64 with 0:16.8 to go. With King's forced to foul, Parenti again went to the charity stripe and knocked down both shots to up the Eastern advantage to 68-65 with 0:16.0 on the clock. Caffrey scored on a lay-up with 0:07 to play to cut the score to 68-67 and the Monarchs again fouled Parenti. The Eastern guard again made both shots to give the Eagles a 70-67 lead with 0:06 to play.

After a King's timeout, the Monarchs attempted to advance the ball up court, but Parenti came up with a mid-court steal to preserve the Eastern victory.

Fiorino paced King's with 16 points, including four three-pointers. Hammonds finished with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists while Heston also added 12 points with three boards. Tom O'Shea posted eight points while Caffrey contributed seven points, five rebounds, and three assists. Foster chipped in with six points.

Garrison led Eastern with 22 points while Parenti followed with 18 points, including 7-of-8 from the foul line. Eastern won the game from the foul line, making 73.3 (22-30) percent of its charity tosses. The Eagles went to tehe foul line on 19 occasions in the second half compared to just nine for the Monarchs.

King's returns to the court Wednesday when the Monarchs travel to face cross-town rival Wilkes at 8:00 p.m. in the Marts Center.